General
While many guitarists love the coloured boost and light 'scream' that even just a little compression can inject into their tone, others just can't stand it. What some guitarists see as dynamic response, others see as noise. As such, Maxon offer these discerning, compression-sceptics a little compromise in the form of the CP101 Compressor. Since this stompbox has a slow, super-smooth response time, the dynamics of your playing are not affected, resulting in a much more natural feel, while the 4:1 compression ratio is consistently subtle, so applied transparency without completely transforming your tone.
Tight Sound
Since the Maxon CP101 Compressor is so subtle and transparent, you might not even notice what it's doing until you switch it off again. What you will notice, is that when you guitar signal is fed through this wee box, every note is given balanced presence and defined clarity. The finer points of chords and arpeggios are picked out and you suddenly have sustain that lasts for days. Even if you open up every control pot fitted to the face of the CP101, the resulting noise is minimal.
Maxon
When it was first born in the '60s, Maxon was actually busy making pickups and by the end of that defining decade, had already started dipping into the dynamic world of effects pedal development. Since they were mostly making pedals for other brands, when the '70s arrived, Maxon were making pedals almost exclusively for Ibanez. As such, many legendary Ibanez pedals are actually Maxon designed and made. The most renowned pedal from this period has to be the Ibanez Tube Screamer (also known as the Maxon 808 Overdrive). This partnership carried on well into 2002 when Ibanez and Maxon finally parted ways. Ever since, Maxon have been producing their own gear, under their own name, and some of their fresh pedals include versions of older Ibanez stompboxes - reissued, and re-stamped with the now-independent Maxon name.
